It could come as early as today, the first ministerial meeting of the newly reshuffled team at the Home Office – and what wouldn't the Westminster press corps give to be flies on that wall? The room will be airless with tension. In the chair will be the home secretary, Theresa May, said to be "spitting tacks" over the appointment – without her approval or even consultation – of Lib Dem Norman Baker as her No 2. Will she give a terse welcome to Baker, through a rictus grin? Or will she all but pretend he's not there, the first step to freezing him out altogether? Will Baker himself try to clear the air? And what about everyone else, the other ministers and their civil servants: will they simply stare at their feet?

The problem, you see, is not only that Baker was imposed on May by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in Monday's reshuffle. The problem is that Baker is, as Sir Humphrey might put it, a brave choice for the Home Office, the department that deals with public safety. For Baker is what you'd call a conspiracy theorist, one so dedicated he took a year out of frontline politics to write a book suggesting the former government weapons inspector Dr David Kelly did not commit suicide in 2003 but was in fact murdered by an Iraqi hit squad, a crime known to, but secretly covered up by, the UK authorities.

Most who have studied the question believe that's nonsense: indeed the one finding of Lord Hutton's public inquiry that few disputed was that Kelly had taken his own life. But Baker remains unconvinced. As the Guardian's Nicholas Watt and Rowena Mason report, Baker has also spoken publicly of his doubts over the death of Robin Cook, seeing mystery in the fact that the one-time foreign secretary – who resigned his cabinet post over Iraq – died while out walking "on Ministry of Defence land".

Baker is of course not the first man prone to seeing secret plots and shadowy schemes in every corner – but he is the first such man to be in charge of the national crime agency, drug and alcohol policy and forensic science. Officials in the latter area especially should brace themselves for some unusually detailed questioning.

One wonders if the new minister will seek to take full advantage of his position. Perhaps he might call up the classified papers on the death of Princess Diana, just to give those a quick once-over. He might put in a call to his opposite number in Washington DC, asking for a peek inside the US government files on the so-called "moon landing" of 1969 or finally get to the truth of what really happened to JFK that day in Dallas.

Forget the political interpretations of Baker's move – perhaps a gesture by Clegg to the left-leaning, woolly-hat wing of the Lib Dems or else an attempt to cut down a potential rival in Baker's predecessor Jeremy Browne. The real significance of Baker's appointment is for the global movement of conspiracy theorists. For the first time they have someone on the inside of the government machine! At last he can discover the truth! Unless, of course, this is all a trick by the authorities – and that's exactly what they want us to think.